


Town Limits

by SunnyD_lite



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Gen, Post Season 2, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-01
Updated: 2010-04-01
Packaged: 2017-10-08 14:39:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/76691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunnyD_lite/pseuds/SunnyD_lite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She had saved the world- and ruined her own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Town Limits

**Author's Note:**

> Set: BtVS end of Sn 2  
> Rating: G  
> Disclaimer: Joss is a god. I am a mere disciple. No profit, no foul, right?  
> Tamingthemuse Prompt: No 74 – Nowhere  
> Concrit/Feedback: Please please pretty please? Let me know where I've hit or missed.

"Welcome to Sunnydale," she read off the sign. "Mom, Sunnydale? It sounds like a place my little ponies would live. Why are we in the middle of nowhere?"

"It's not nowhere, Buffy. It's our new home." A bit of her smirked at her mother's forced cheerful tone. That tone meant that she wasn't alone in her apprehensions.

Her world was in ruins. Her parents had split, she'd been kicked off the cheerleading squad _and_ she'd burned down the high school gym to save everyone from vampires. Of course "slaying vampires" or "saving the world" weren't defenses you could raise with the school board. So she'd been expelled, that was one of the reasons she and her mom had to move. She fiddled with the tootsie pop in her mouth, then spoke around it, another thing her mother hated.

"Fine, Home, sweet Sunnydale. Whatever."

###

The mystic winds buffeted her, as she stared into her lover's eyes, into the vanishing vortex. All the emotions of the last few hours, of the last few months rose up to choke her, but she couldn't cry yet.

As Buffy, she wanted to drop to her knees, weeping. That part of her was screaming. But she wasn't just Buffy, no matter how much she protested otherwise, and, as the Slayer, she knew there were things to be done. Practical mundane things that would give her the time she needed to fall apart. She forced a breath into her lung. Soon, but not now. Now there was a new goal. She'd saved the world: now to find a safe place to save herself.

The Slayer side stomped done on the emotions and provided her with a checklist. Hostages: a quick look around confirmed that Xander had left with Giles. Giles, how could...she had to. Other threats: Spike's car was also gone, so maybe he'd kept his bargain. The area was clear, except for the once again stone statue. She took a step towards the granite monster. No time. Her work here was done.

Her life here was done.

She fled. Her feet beating a familiar path without her conscious thought. In a blink she'd climbed up the tree scraping her palms against the bark and was quietly opening her bedroom window.

How many times had she done this? Would she ever do it again? Ignoring the tears dripping down her cheeks, she tugged her weapons bag out from under the bed and began pulling out its contents. She emptied it, emptying her old life, and began to throw in underwear, bras, t-shirts and jeans, smothering sobs as she went. She was standing in the ruins of her world and she was trying to find matching socks? The absurdity of it almost sent her into hysterical laughter. But there was still one more thing to do. After she wrote a note to her mom.

The mom who kicked her out not ten hours ago. Who asked if she could try not being a Slayer. How could she say goodbye? But how could she stay?

After tossing a cross bow and Mr. Pointy on top of Mr. Gordo, she zipped up the bag and slipped back through her window, giving it one last glance. She had been happy here, that surprised her. When she arrived in Sunnydale it had been a place of exile. Now she couldn't imagine being anywhere else.

It was morning, when had it become morning? She lurked in the park across from good ole Sunnydale High. She couldn't leave without making sure.

They had trusted her to protect them. She had failed. But the bands of disappointment around her chest loosed a little bit to see them. Willow was still in a wheelchair, but the rest of the Scoobies looked okay. She'd had friends before, but never like these. And Giles. She'd never look at tweed the same way again.

No more school. No more home. She hadn't been there when Kendra died, when her friends were hurt. There was nowhere to go back to. There was nowhere to run to either.

After seeing them, she made her way to the bus station. She didn't have much money and buses could get her the furthest distance on what she had. Destination didn't matter. She had nowhere she wanted to go.

At the station she bought a ticket for the first bus leaving, not even asking its destination. As the bus pulled out of town it passed both her house, and then the "Welcome to Sunnydale" sign. This town had become her world, a world she was forced to leave.

Her friends were safe. The world was safe.

Who was going to save her?


End file.
